The punishment of criminals should be of use; when a man is hanged he is good for nothing.

I acknowledge that four thousand volumes of metaphysics will not teach us what our soul is.

Let us therefore reject all superstition in order to become more human; but in speaking against fanaticism, let us not imitate the fanatics: they are sick men in delirium who want to chastise their doctors. Let us assuage their ills, and never embitter them, and let us pour drop by drop into their souls the divine balm of toleration, which they would reject with horror if it were offered to them all at once.

The son of God is the same as the son of man; the son of man is the same as the son of God. God, the father, is the same as Christ, the son; Christ, the son, is the same as God, the father. This language may appear confused to unbelievers, but Christians will readily understand it.

What a pessimist you are!" exclaimed Candide. "That is because I know what life is," said Martin.

Earth is an insane asylum, to which the other planets deport their lunatics.

Every beauty, when out of it's place, is a beauty no longer.